Halas, West honored by YWCA

Halas, West honored by YWCA

BY ARIE WILSON
Rice News staff

The YWCA of Houston has named Rice University’s Naomi Halas and Jennifer West as 2005 Outstanding Women of Achievement in Science and Technology.

Naomi Halas

Jennifer West

Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, and West, the Isabel C. Cameron Professor of

Bioengineering and professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering, were jointly honored by the YWCA for their contributions to research and development in the field of nanotechnology.

Halas, a world-renowned leader in the field of nanophotonics, is the inventor of metal nanoshells, engineered nanoparticles that have unique optical properties of wide interest in optics, biomedicine, materials science and other disciplines.

West, director of Rice’s Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering, is a recognized leader in the local bioscience community. In 2004 she received the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation’s Frank Annunzio Award, one of the most competitive U.S. science honors.

As a team, Halas and West’s research on a nanoshell-based cancer therapy was named the Best Discovery of 2003 by Nanotechonology Now.

The duo are also collaborating on other biomedical applications for nanoshells, including a drug delivery system and a handheld device that paramedics may one day use to perform rapid whole-blood immunoassays in the ambulance or on the battlefield.

“This award brings support to the national and international attention our research program in nanoengineered photonics and plasmonics has received,” Halas said. “One of our major research program goals is to produce research scientists with significantly expanded skill sets and expertise who will be the future in development of new solutions to research and engineering problems.”

Halas joined the faculty of Rice’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1989 and received a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry in 1999. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a recipient of the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and a four-time winner of the Rice Engineering Alumni’s Hershel M. Rich Invention Award.

Halas was recently elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she received the Cancer Innovator Award from the congressionally directed medical research programs of the U.S. Department of Defense in 2003.

In 2003 West was named one of the top 100 researchers under the age of 35 by Technology Review magazine.

In the field of tissue engineering, West’s research involves the development of bioengineered arteries that can be used to combat heart disease and problems that arise after angioplasty, the balloon procedure used to open clogged arteries. Additionally, West has developed biodegradable scaffolding materials on which genetically engineered cells can grow.

West came to Rice after receiving her doctoral degree from the University of Texas–Austin in 1996.

“As with any honor of this nature, it reflects well on the institution that is fostering an atmosphere that produces successful research,” West said. “I share the YWCA of Houston’s tenet to educate and improve quality of life.”

In 2002, Kathleen S. Matthews, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, was also a recipient of the honor.